a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new or improved protective garment to be worn on the upper body of a user to provide a measure of protection against blows to the shoulders and the torso. The invention is particularly although not exclusively concerned with the provision of the kind of protective garment that is commonly referred to as "shoulder pads" as used for ice hockey and other contact sports.
b) Description of the Prior Art
The participants in contact sports, and in particular in ice hockey, are subjected to frequent blows not just from the bodies of opposing players, but also from contact, for example, with rink boards, goal posts, sticks, pucks, skates, and the ice surface. Numerous protection systems of shoulder pads have been proposed in the past and are available on the market.
Unfortunately, maximizing the protective properties of such systems necessarily entails restriction in the freedom of movement of the arms, neck and torso of the player, so that a compromise has to be reached between the amount of protection afforded by a protective garment and the restriction which the garment imposes upon the freedom of movement of the wearer. Generally, more skilful and experienced ice hockey players tend to favour garments which maximize the player's freedom of movement while still providing some degree of protection, whereas amateur and younger players require equipment which maximizes the degree of protection without excessively limiting their freedom of movement.